The invention relates to a method for locating persons in a prescribed area and to an associated device for locating persons in a prescribed area, and to a computer program product and a data processing program for carrying out the method.
Image processing methods are nowadays an integral component of automatic video surveillance methods. They are used, for example, for segmenting, detecting, tracking, classifying and counting moving objects within an area to be monitored which is monitored by at least one image acquisition device. The at least one image acquisition device continuously generates images of the prescribed area monitored, which are analyzed and evaluated by using at least one image processing method and/or image evaluation method. The image processing is an essential component for an automatic surveillance of relatively large areas by means of a plurality of image acquisition devices, especially in order to be able to correlate objects with one another which are recorded with different image acquisition devices from different recordings.
In laid-open patent application DE 102 10 926 A1 for example, a device and method for tracking at least one object in a scene are described. The method described detects when a moving object comes to a standstill from its movement, and counts the time it dwells in standstill in order to generate signaling in dependence on the dwell time. In this context, the object is described with respect to the direction of its movement and the time by a list or a matrix. The method described is used, in particular, in a video monitoring system which has at least one image generator, one processor, one memory and output means by means of which signaling can take place, for example in the form of an alarm. The signaling can also be used as a signal for other systems.